Vladimir Putin does regime change, but not nation-building. He finds the most competent, ruthless, and loyal thug in the area, gives him the keys to the car, and mostly leaves him to his own devices. If the guy doesn’t work out, he finds another one. This limits his military and financial exposure if things go wrong.
Trump has clearly decided this is the way to handle Venezuela; it can’t turn into another Iraq if there is no occupation and no effort to recreate liberal democracy. The problem, of course, is that Venezuela could tear itself apart and turn into another Libya. Obama tried the no boots on the ground approach there, and it didn’t exactly end well.
And as Putin found out in Syria, and his Soviet predecessors discovered many times before that, the choice of a new thug may be out of your hands if your guy can’t cut the mustard.